Simple versus complex carbohydrates and health: A frequently neglected problem

Abstract

Aims: For several decades, there has been a notion that dietary fat is made of different components (at least SAFA, MUFA, and PUFA) that exhibit different and sometimes contrasting effects when associated with health and diseases: coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in general. A similar fact is not noticed in carbohydrates and their components considering that even some major recent studies on the issue did not segregate simple carbohydrates from complex carbohydrates. In this study, we aimed to stress this need.

Data synthesis: A small number of selected studies are presented and commented where segregation of simple from complex carbohydrates was either performed or disregarded to address the inconsistency of not disentangling them.

Conclusions: If only total fats were considered in investigations where fat was studied, the present notion and attitude toward different roles of the various classes of fats, at least SAFA versus unsaturated (MUFA and PUFA) would be missing. Therefore, there is a need to disentangle simple from complex carbohydrates, and this should be systematically applied when addressing CHD or CVD mortality risks and their preventive measures.

Keywords: CHD; CVD; Carbohydrates; Diets; Mortality risk; Prevention; Starch; Sugar.